Chris Kluwe has been known to speak his mind from time to time. Now that the Vikings’ season is over, he speaks out once again, in relatively measured terms.
I was an NFL player until I was fired by two cowards and a bigot
I like Chris Kluwe and think he’s fighting a good fight. That being said, I would have been more careful if I was in his position. He’s a punter, and as far as NFL players go, they’re pretty replaceable.
He was already replaced a year ago. He knows he’s not going to play for the NFL again.
He was brave to speak out but he pushed the PR envelope about a far as it would go. I do believe his views (which I share) probably contributed to getting him fired, but on the flipside there is a (IMO) undercurrent of entitlement in his protests that they would dare to fire him statistical king of the Viking punters. I get the vibe this is as much about his wounded ego as his political positons.
One of the more interesting takeaways from that article at least for me was that the Vikings’ owner Zygi Wilf vocally supported what Kluwe was doing, yet the head coach went out of his way to say “I’m only tolerating what you say because the CEO is on your side,” and the assistant coach in charge of Kluwe was totally hostile to what Kluwe was doing. I mean, I know the NFL is a different ballgame, but in most businesses, if the CEO professes an opinion, you better damn well profess it too, or at least not go out of your way to say the opposite, lest you find yourself out on the street. Frazier and the assistant coach Priefer aren’t exactly Hall of Fame contenders (indeed Frazier got canned at the end of the season after a dismally underperforming year) and they were as expendable as Kluwe, so I’m not sure why they felt it was OK to cross Wilf. The only thing I can think of is that Priefer’s behavior never filtered up to Wilf, which certainly would have triggered a very uncomfortable meeting between the Priefer and the owner.
Well, no shit. I rather imagine if you got shitcanned tomorrow, someone would have to hear a cranky monologue about how regardless of anything else X never happened when I was in charge. It’s human nature.
I’m just annoyed because what am I supposed to do now? I can’t retroactively skip out on the vikings games I never went to. I can’t call the headquarters to congratulate them on supporting a social justice-minded player. I can’t call for the removal of a bigoted coach.
Guess I’m off to buy Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies.
I think his notes about his performance were critical to dispel the argument that he was fired for underperforming. Since he clearly wasn’t fired for that, the implication is clear.
Well fuck the Vikings, even if it is just on principle.
He was 24th in punting average. Not great.
And when you figure that it cost the Vikings ~1.3 million a year to get ‘not great’ performance, that’s a sizeable chunk of change. Here’s a list of NFL punters’ salaries for 2013.
His replacement on the Vikes, Jeff Locke, has a cash number of 590k and a salary cap number of 450k. Granted, Locke isn’t that good, and is a worse place kick holder than Kluwe, but nearly a million dollars per year is nearly a million dollars per year. Totally understandable why they cut him. Not like the Vikes are probably doing anything in the playoffs next year anyway.
According to Kluwe (stated in the article) he was under orders to kick the ball higher and less deep in order to force more fair catches.
I support his campaign (and I wish more athletes would take that stand) but it probably didn’t help that his letter in support of Brendan Ayanbadejo was so… aggressive.
This. According to the article, Wilf approached him before a game to thank him for his activism, but they weren’t chums or anything.
Also, I doubt the team owner would be much involved, if at all, in the hiring and firing of punters, so it’s likely he wasn’t in the loop on any of this.
Please inform Jerry of this.
Splitting hairs at that point.
He was one of the most expensive punters in the league. Better punters than him have been cut.
Example: Shane Lechler. Arguably the greatest punter in NFL history. Paid like it too, by the Oakland Raiders of the Al Davis era. But you don’t rebuild teams by paying millions to punters. He’s with Houston now.
Minnesota has several roster issues. Paying millions for a punter, even for the greatest punter who ever played the game, would be cause to question the intelligence of the entire front office.
Kluwe is at best an average punter. From what I read his deal was back loaded so the longer he played the more he made. He just wasn’t worth the money.
Add to that his huge ego. He felt the need to broadcast his opinions to everyone. The press liked it because it made for good sound bites. Whether its on gay marriage, pissing off Catholics about the Pope or purposely getting fined by the NFL for his Ray Guy protest patch, he wants to be in the spotlight. He certainly has the right to voice his opinions in any way he wishes. But he needs to understand, when a coach is fighting for his professional life he doesn’t want to go into a post game press conference and answer questions about the latest tweets from his fucking punter. If I was the coach I would have cut him too even if I agreed with him on every single off field issue.
Given that he has a history of kicking line drives that get returned for TDs, this was needed correction. But everyone wants a punter who kicks high AND deep AND accurate. The fact that he was beaten out in Oakland by an undrafted rookie and spent the season unsigned belies the idea that he was anything special.
I find it somewhat telling that Kluwe simultaneously says that it was wrong to fire him for his beliefs, and then states that he wants his former coach to be blackballed because of his beliefs. I mean, if you just want to say “my beliefs are right and his are wrong,” fine. But don’t pretend you’re some victim of conscience.